Pros

Cons

Display is way too reflective, surface is a fingerprint magnet, trackpad doesn't feel good

Bottom Line

You won't be editing your feature-length films or play Assassin's Creed on this, but for regular day-to-day tasks the Acer Aspire 5 is a good laptop to have

July 29, 2018Vincent Peter

The Acer Aspire 5 is the Jim Belushi of laptops: slightly overweight and not all that great at anything, but just good enough at doing most things to somehow be mostly worthwhile to have around, despite there being countless superior alternatives. That sounds like a backhanded compliment, but the Aspire 5 is actually quite commendable for what it is. The laptop market is a bit weird in that most customers operate on extreme ends of hyper-expensive high end laptops or surprisingly competent low-end ones. The mid-tier machines rarely get noticed but continue to be the most consistently reliable.

Instead of packing state of the art technology or having an extravagant visual design, the Aspire 5 quietly and competently helps you get your tasks one, whilst striking a perfect balance between reliable power and a low price. This is made better by Acer having updated the range with 8th-gen Intel Core processors. But before we move on, let’s look at the specs:

OS: Windows 10 Home

Processor: Intel Core i7-7500U

Display: 15.6” Acer CineCrystal LED

Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 940MX

Memory: 8 GB DDR4 RAM

Storage: 1TB HDD

Camera: HD Camera with 2 mic

Battery: 4 cell Li-ion battery

Design

The Acer Aspire 5 isn’t too flashy in design which, if you’ve seen my previous laptop reviews, you’ll know is something I actually prefer. While it’s far from the sleek and snazzy ultrabooks of 2018, it isn’t clunky or ugly by any measure. Coming in around 2.16 x 38.16 x 26.3 centimeters and 4.85 pounds, the Aspire 5 is on the larger side. And while it isn’t too heavy to comfortably carry around, it’s also not something you can seamlessly whip out on the metro. The 15 inch screen is encapsulated within thick bezels, but as a side-effect the laptop has a reasonably large keyboard to go with it.

The large bezels also mean the webcam is right in the center of the top bezel which is the only place where a webcam should be. At the bottom of the panel you have the Acer logo that rests on a hinge with the word ‘ASPIRE’ engraved on it, which I found a bit tacky. The sides have the usual power socket and headphone jack, as well as two USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, and one USB-C port.

Keyboard and trackpad

The bottom half of the laptop has a nice brushed finish that replicates the look at aluminum without feeling like it. Although it is an infuriating fingerprint magnet. The keyboard itself is quite large and comfortable to use over long periods of time.

The trackpad, like the keyboard is also fairly large, which is nice for people with large hands and definitely makes it easier to use multi-finger gestures like scrolling and pinching. Although the large trackpad has a propensity to get under your palms when you’re typing. The trackpad also has a cheap plastic feel to it, which is a shame given how well-constructed the rest of the laptop is.

Display

The Acer Aspire 5 has been built for handling day-to-day tasks rather than specialising in any one thing the 1TB hard disk and 8GB of RAM keep things running just fast enough to not feel sluggish and it handles Windows 10 quite well. The screen is a decent Full HD (1920x1080) LCD panel that does a good enough job for watching videos and doing basic photo editing, at least until there isn’t a light source behind you. The Aspire 5’s screen is so reflective, it completely falls apart if there’s even a tiny bulb behind you. Using it in a well-lit office, the screen was often awash with reflections to the point of inducing a migraine.

Still, it’s a screen that won’t cause you too much trouble with usual everyday tasks, but gamers or people who are discerning about they’re displays should definitely look elsewhere. The Nvidia GTX 940 that’s on board does a decent job of running most games from over a year ago, but you won’t be playing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey on the Aspire 5. It’s not built for that anyway.

Performance and Battery

The battery life on the Aspire 5 is actually pretty impressive for what it is. Under my usual battery test of running a video on loop with medium brightness and the WiFi off, the battery lasted about 6 hours and 48 minutes. That number will go down when you use WiFi to stream Youtube or Netflix or play games. Overall, though, it’s a great battery because it will get you through an average work day on a full charge without having to clamour for power outlets. That said, the battery takes about three hours to go from zero to 100% so I guess you win some, you lose some.

Verdict

The Acer Aspire 5 is a good mid-range laptop that will get you reasonably good performance without having to get a second mortgage, all while refusing to compromise on build quality and components. There’s a decent range of configurations available, meaning you’re very like to find one that suits your exact needs (as long as your needs aren’t too specific). While our review model came with a dedicated GPU, there are even variants that use integrated graphics, and the battery life is good across the board. You’re not going to be playing modern games or rendering your feature length documentaries on the Aspire 5, but for an average person’s average day, this is a great laptop to have.

The Acer Aspire 5 was provided to us by Acer Middle East for review purposes. It is available now in the UAE at all major retail outlets.